A disturbance will move across the area today, with light snow across the mountains. 2 to 5 inches are possible in the higher elevations with little to no accumulation in the valleys. At this time, it does not appear strong enough to break valley inversions. A more unsettled pattern will set up for the weekend heading into the coming work week, with a series of systems affecting the area. The first arrives on Saturday from the southwest with milder temperatures generating rain among some lower elevations mixed with snow, with snow above 9000 ft. The second stronger system arrives Sunday and affects the area through at least Tuesday, with widespread snowfall and colder temperatures. (Please visit http://weather.gov/gjt for more information.)

While January started dry, it’ll end snowy. I’ve been tracking this change in the weather pattern for over a week, and while the details are still not set in stone, it does look like the last week of January will offer powder across the I-70 corridor from Beaver Creek to Vail to Breckenridge to Keystone.

To set the stage, plentiful Pacific moisture is streaming eastward and will saturate the air over Colorado from Thursday (January 24th) through the middle of next week. While this moisture brought a few inches of snow to Tahoe and a few more inches could fall over the weekend, the main story will be snowfall in Colorado.

One weak storm will bring a few inches on Thursday night (January 24th), and another weak storm will move through southern Colorado and only bring a few inches to the Vail resorts from Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning.

The bigger story will be the strong storm that moves across the state on Monday night through Wednesday morning (January 30th).